Fortress Europe

If you need a Dutch translator, let me know!

So late tonight (probably too late for some of you in European time zones) I'll toss up another image of our Battlegroup Builder menu, this time showing some of the historical units you'll be able to command.

In the meantime, any particular historical units you're curious about that you'd like featured in future updates of our progress? So far we've shown off what a US Tank Destroyer platoon and Volksgrenadier (Sturm) platoon looks like, but there's tons more we have in store.

Also just because we don't have the model for something doesn't mean we won't show it off in the Battlegroup Builder; it just won't be available to purchase and will have a 'Not available yet' stamp over it. This will give players glimpses into what the future has in store, once community-made models become a reality.

any particular historical units you're curious about that you'd like featured in future updates of our progress?

Support or defensive units.

So a bit late on that promised update, but I didn't like how the UI was coming together so redesigned it. Anyways, here's what've got so far.

The following example is for the Germans, and I've been using them as my testbed since they have the most broadest variety of units and some of the longest unit names, so if I can make the Germans fit into the UI, then I can get anything to fit

Ignore the folder tabs at the top of each image. Eventually these will be clickable and allow you to move back and forth through the process. For now they're just placeholders.

As before, open the image in a new tab if you want to see the full-size version of it.




So first you have to choose what branch of the Wehrmacht your Battlegroup is from. Kriegsmarine option is missing in this example, but it will be there eventually once we have skin support and can add a proper Marine-Grenadier skin. In fact quite a few things in the menu aren't available yet, but I'm planning ahead.



So let's say we picked Heer, here's the divisions we have to work with. Your choice of division (or brigade, detachment, etc.) determines the companies that show up in the next step. Otherwise there'd be no room to show every single possible company on a single page.

The symbols are the standard military map symbols (in this case, NATO standard) that are often used in war games. I plan on having a Help button at the bottom which shows a handy reference guide on how to decipher them. They're really not that difficult to understand once you get the basics down, and they'll show up through-out our UI.




And let's say we picked the Panzer Division, which gives us the company choices listed above. There's obviously more units than just those six within a Panzer Division, but these ones were actually used as front-line combat units - and the core unit of your battlegroup has to be a front-line combat unit - and the rest were support units so they play a part later in the process.



And in this case we picked the Panzerspäh-Kompanie, so the last question is what kind of vehicle the company is equipped with. Some companies don't have this step because there's no variants to speak of. Also you can see that only the first three options are available, and the rest are greyed out because we don't yet have the models for them.


The next step after this is to add the support units that will accompany the unit you chose, but still working on that menu. Stay tuned!

Very impressive.

This is beautiful

Next update will feature something non-German. As I mentioned before, I use Germans as the Worse Case Scenario because of their unit naming conventions and the sheer number of units to squeeze into a list. American, British, and Soviets were a lot more standardized.

When I put together the mock-up for the last stage of the builder - which is the most fun part of it, since that's where you customize your Battlegroup to have exactly the units you want from the available options - I'll show one from another nation. I'm currently pondering either a Soviet Self-propelled Artillery Regiment (either with the SU-76, SU-85, or ISU-152) or an American Rifle Company to show off all the artillery batteries you can attach to your Battlegroup.

After discovering this mod through Nigo's signature, I think I'm going to need new fucking pants.

I pray that your children and grandchildren will be protected from every type of venerable disease out there.

After discovering this mod through Nigo's signature, I think I'm going to need new fucking pants.

so it is like europe in ruins mod(coh1)?

I WANT TO PLAY THIS SO BAD!

So let's talk about Artillery.

We plan on having a very different approach to artillery than Relic's, one that incorporates the doctrine and methods of each nation to give more flavour and options. It's a bit more realistic, though still streamlined and sped up since we don't think most players want to wait three to fifteen minutes for the shells to arrive.

The biggest change is that most artillery is kept off the map, leaving only infantry guns and medium mortars on the map with few exceptions. Off-map artillery batteries are controlled through an artillery observation team, which is either a small infantry team on foot or in a vehicle. The observers can radio for artillery support on a designated area, as well as choose the type of bombardment and any other options available to that nation. They can designate targets beyond their normal sight range, but only up to a certain distance since they still need to be able to see the impacts, so they have to accompany your troops and can be killed if you're not careful.

Off-map Artillery has three different response tiers that are chosen when you purchase it: Under Command, In Support, and In Reserve. Under Command means that the battery directly subordinated to your Battlegroup and will respond immediately to your requests if they are able. In Support means that the battery has been assigned to you as well as a few other units in the nearby area, so it might be busy doing a fire mission for someone else and you'll have to wait. In Reserve means that the battery is being held back by your superiors, so you won't often get the chance to use it. Obviously In Support and In Reserve give a cost discount when purchasing artillery, though all three tiers are not always available depending upon your nation.

Red Army artillery is unique in that it has a fourth option: Pre-planned Fire. The Soviet Union had a shortage of radios to equip observers, and usually anyone trained well enough to be an observer was kept at the artillery headquarters rather than squandered on dangerous assignments. This means that they instead relied on highly-detailed firing plans that were decided upon before the battle started. Pre-planned Fire allows you to designate artillery targets anywhere on the map, but you have to wait for a few minutes at least before the guns begin firing, making it useless for reacting to a rapidly changing situation. However the Pre-planned Fire allows you to field not just a battery, but an entire battalion (three batteries, up to 12 guns in total) and the cost discount is quite high to make all those guns affordable, giving you a viable way to smash a defensive line before you move in with your ground forces. If you go for a response tier other than Pre-planned Fire, your observer team will not be as effective and you'll be limited to a single battery of four guns.

Speaking of national differences, German doctrine was pretty traditional and called for precision fire with short salvos. They wanted to conserve ammunition and make every shot count, but the calculations needed to achieve that accuracy slowed down their response times. Fairly effective at eliminating specific targets that aren't moving around, but not effective at hammering an area for a sustained time nor for hitting moving targets.

American doctrine was an evolution of the French artillery doctrine that pioneered some concepts of centralizing the artillery in an area under one flexible headquarters. The calculations were simplified to speed up the response, but without sacrifing too much accuracy. Also since all requests went through a centralized system (A fire direction center, located off the map), there was a chance that other batteries in the area could help out if they were available too. Being tied into a Fire Direction Center is an extra upgrade purchased ahead of time and is only available if you take the In Support response tier.

British doctrine emphasized highly-trained observation officers that had a lot of leeway and authority. They also simplified their processes in other ways, so British artillery responds faster than any other nation. Observation teams have the authority to request fire from more than just the battery they came from - similar to what the fire direction center for the US provides - but using special codes like Mike Target and Victor Target that can be used a few times per game. Also British batteries were the largest of any participating nation - eight guns at full strength - giving you a great deal of firepower if you can afford it.

Rocket Artillery also functions differently than conventional guns and howitzers. Obviously they saturate a large area in a very short time with their inaccurate rockets. However the smoke trails generated by their rockets reveal their general location to enemy artillery, so after one or two bombardments they will have to pack up and relocate to avoid counter-battery fire. When this happens you'll be notified, along with an ETA on when the battery is ready to fire again. Also reload times are much higher with rocket artillery, so you'll have to wait longer between bombardments.

I WANT TO PLAY THIS SO BAD!

+1


Great ideas on arty warfare.

I'm guessing the first release won't be summer anymore, right?

Very interesting information on artillery and the incredible breadth of this mod, nothing but enthusiastic anticipation here!

Looks like the return of the Red God of War. I cannot wait. This mod sounds awesome.

What does having say 3 batteries of 4 guns mean in practical terms? Does it mean we're going to be having the equivalent of 12 ML-20s firing at the same area or what?

If it does mean 12 ML-20s then...

A Red Army artillery battalion consisted usually of two batteries (4 guns each) of ZIS-3 76.2mm guns and one battery (also 4) of 122mm Model 1938 howitzers. So directing the entire battalion in a pre-planned fire will fill up one large area with a lot of light 76.2mm impacts and a few heavier 122mm impacts. Considering the area being hit will be fairly large (exact size TBD, but we're thinking maybe 75m diameter?), your chances of scoring direct hits on anything won't be that great, but you wouldn't want to march infantry or light vehicles through it.

We are also considering adding the reserve artillery battalion as an option (which would only be available as 'In Reserve'), in which case it's two batteries of heavier guns, ranging from the 122mm Model 1938 all the way up to 152mm ML-20 guns. So fewer shots fired into the same rough area, but double the amount of heavier impacts. Still looking into the 203mm B-4's historical employment before adding it in, but I suspect it was also in some reserve artillery battalions.

One nice thing about having most of the artillery off the map is that we don't have to worry about models. Don't need to make a 122mm Model 1938 gun if you only ever see the shells whistling overhead This is especially helpful for the Germans since they had so many artillery gun models - and quite a lot of captured foreign guns they pressed into service.

Damn, this is probably the most detailed and accurate artillery model I've ever seen in a game, even including games like the Combat Mission series. Impressive.

Damn, why can't this come out faster. I'd love to help.

I'm guessing the first release won't be summer anymore, right?

We're still aiming for late summer if we can. Artillery is not a priority at this point, but we know we can achieve what we have planned, so it's only a matter of time before it's in. Close Air Support will also function more realistically, but is further down our list of priorities, so we'll cover it in the future.